Mumbai: formal and informal equilibrium by Marco Degaetano

Postgraduate Master programmes MaHS MaUSP Master of Human Settlements Master of Urbanism and Strategic Planning Thesis submitted to obtain the degree 'Master of Human Settlements'

Urban Design Strategies for Mumbai, India Formal / Informal: An interdependent equilibrium? promoter: Kelly Shannon reader 1: Bruno De Meulder reader 2: Paola ViganĂ˛

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Faculty of Engineering Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Planning Kasteelpark Arenberg 1 3001 Heverlee Belgium

Student: Marco Degaetano, MaHs 2006/2007

Table of contents: 1_ Mumbai unbalanced city

2_ Seven Islands Mumbai

3_ Mumbai: Boombai/Slumbai

4_ Horizontal density

5_ Mixed use par excellence

6_ Informality: a convenient truth

7_ Upgrading possibilities?

7.1_ Barrio Project Rio de Janeiro

7.2_ Kampung Improvement programme. Jakarta, Indonesia

7.3_ Slum Networking of Indore City. Indore, India

8_ Lesson from Design Studio

8.1_ Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR)

8.2_ Salsette Island

8.3_ Island City

9_ Conclusions

10_ Bibliography

Slums near the rail (photo: Author)

1_ Mumbai Unbalanced City

4 Mumbai is rapidly densifying and urbanizing as it receives one of the world s biggest influxes of population from its rural hinterlands. The local government s vision for Mumbai is sadly projecting an extreme marketoriented policy in its drive to remain as India s most important economic powerhouse. The consequences are evident in the spatial structuring of the city and particularly evident in the proliferation of informal, squatter settlements. Shanghai has been taken as the model for the city s image and real estate development. There is a tendency to occupy vacant or reclaimed land with gated communities and/or high rise luxury buildings. This is a reality difficult to change and it is unrealistic to imagine a completely different policy and development reality. Yet, the problem remains for the lower class, the poor stratum of the population who are neglected in the process to create a new city, to transform Mumbai into a world-class city. Is it possible for Mumbai to find a solution to its unbalanced development?

High rise building in Navi Mumbai (Photo: Author)

Fisherman at work (photo: Author)

2_ Seven Island Mumbai

6 Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the city of Mumbai was an archipelago of seven islands, separated by the Mahim Creek from its mainland hinterland . The

city s original population was composed of fisherman living in small villages on the islands and their economical support was constituted by local port activities. Between 1817 and 1845, the city was physically transformed by an enormous land reclamation process which eventually merged the seven islands into a large peninsula. Through this process, in 1853, the city achieved the possibility to build its first passenger railway line ,

connecting Bombay to the town of Thane. However, at the same time, several fishermen villages lost their access to the sea. Economic livelihoods were severely compromised. The city soon become home to industry and its economy boomed as it was the world s chief cotton producer. This prosperity directly connected to the textile industry and to port activities has been evident in Mumbai until the 1980 s , when economic development shifted to other sectors

( such as diamond-

polishing and information technology ) which required more skilled workers. Many unskilled workers therefore lost their jobs and became unable to afford the expense of a house; a majority moved to periphery s informal settlements, joining thousands of migrants from the hinterland who moved into the city in search of employment. As well, a number of fishing villages have been transformed into slums and all the available land within the city has been occupied by new dwellers

the net

result being that Mumbai is one of the world s cities with the largest concentration of slums. [S.M. Dossal, 1991; K. Sharma, 2000; UDRI, 2006:148]

Photo form the book: Di Pauline Rohatgi, Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives, Architecture, Marg Publications, 1997

Vertical/Horizontal (photo: Author)

3_ Mumbai: Boombai/ Slumbai

8 Mumbai, previously known as Bombay, is the capital of the state of Maharashtra and is the most populous city in India with approximately 13 million inhabitants ( 1 ) . The whole Greater Mumbai metropolitan region, along with its suburbs and villages, forms the world s sixth most populated metropolitan area with a population of 25 million; by 2015 it is projected to rise to the 4th most populous city due to the annual growth rate of 2.2%

(2 )

Because of the prosperous economic opportunities, Mumbai has been an incredible attractor for migrants and workers all over India. The city of Mumbai is located on the Salsette Island and due to its optimum sea approach it has was once the largest port on the Indian Ocean [S.M. Dossal, 1991]. This is one of the reason s that Mumbai is the economic capital of India; it boasts some of the most important financial institutions, such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, as well as some large economic empires such as Tata Group, Reliance and many others local industries. With its 67.353 crore Rs. ( 6 73,53 billion Rs. ) of gross city product in 2003, equivalent to the 2,4% of the national economy , Mumbai can be considered one of the most productive cities in India. The population has increased approximately 13.8% in the last decade, reaching 13 million inhabitants; this number is going to increase by 2.4 million in the next ten years. [UDRI, 2006:10-11]

The formation of the slums is a phenomena related to the unstable economic cycles of capitalism and its irregular national income distribution. Every economic boom and its eventual demise represent the typically fast capitalist cycle which gives little time to different worker classes to benefit from higher incomes. The rapid migration from rural areas to cities during such economic booms is partially responsible for the rapid creation of unsustainable suburbs and slums in urban voids and marginal spaces. The economic development of a country inevitably creates a tremendous gap between specialized and the non-specialized ( skilled ) workers whom in turn have completely different roles and benefits in the globalization of markets. While developers try to benefit as much as possible during periods of economic growth, the low ( n o ) income classes don t get many opportunities to be part of this development [Danilo Taino, 2004]. The unaffordable price of the houses in the city force the lower economic stratum of society to settle in informal dwellings which are as close as possible to potential workplaces ( h eavy industry, hotels, high income residential area) . The slums become a part of the tissue itself and the low cost of the housing allows dwellers to survive in the city and to have a hope for a better life.

Mumbai is estimated to have more than 3000 informal settlements or 6.5 million of slums inhabitants , which translates to 54% of the total population. [P.Joshi, UDRI, 2006: 154]

(1) [http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua2015.pdf Demographia World Urban Areas: 2005 Population & 2015 Projection] (2) [World Gazzetteer]

9 Thus, the city is confronted by a new concept of space

once which may be summarized as an

informal

urbanity . Mumbai s urban landscape is characterized by a unique architectural pluralism where different intense duality not only cohabitate and share the same space, but establish interdependent needs and benefits. Modernity and tradition, luxury and poverty, permanent and temporary, don t raise merely a sensation of contrast or conflict . On the contrary, those opposite extremes estabilish a strong interrelation between the different component of the urban tissue , where different realities turn into a same space. Formality and informality have therefore not to be conceived in a conventional westernized manner, but using a more contemporary realistic approach. Formality is a more static long-term reality composed by clear rules and a planned o rder . Laws and other kind of regulations, structure the society and aim to shape it according to a high quality of life. But Mumbai s urban complexity is a dynamic reality which seems impossible to contain in a well defined spectrum of rules. The informal rules correct the inequity of the laws, which have failed in addressing the balance between the amount of work which Mumbai is able to offer and the housing possibilities for the workers. In 2005, 81 Police inspectors and 4414 Policemen were living in Slums. They are officers of the law, but in the same time they live in illegal settlements built on a land they not own. The informal rules doesn t r egularize are

formally

the slums, but at least allow those illegal houses to be tolerated and not bulldozed. The slums illegal, but

informally

accepted [S.B.Patel, UDRI, 2006: 223].

Part of Dharavi, the so-called biggest Slum in South Asia and the Mithi River (photo: Author)

10 Informality is the dynamic component which provides the right corrections necessary in a particular situation or moment, conferring stability to the uncertainty of the city

disorder .

D isorder is often an order that we are not able to understand. The equilibrium of disorder and order is the first key to understand Indian cities

[A.Petruccioli, 1986: 123-124]

The first place where is possible to identify the strong chaotic interaction between different realities is the s treet . Indeed, it is the first public space which is invaded by informal dwellers and sellers. The street is everybody s property and in the same time it has become anybody s property. But not the whole Mumbai s population uses the streets in the same way; in fact, we can recognize three different users, classified on the basis of their social status. There is the upper class ( 1 0% of the total population ) who perceives the streets in a more functional manner 続. For them, the road is a physical link between two places to cover in the shortest time, without much concern of the world in between. Luxury cars move all over the city with their windows closed to prevent not only the unsustainable hot weather, but also the rest of life around them.

There is also the middle class which represents 30% of the total population 続. The majority of this class tends to be normal workers, whose daily movement from their houses to work is primarily done via public transport. For them, the street is an extension of their house and of their living customs 続. It is a place for social interaction, to eat, celebrate and sometimes also to relax. The lower income group comprises of unskilled workers, slum dwellers, unemployed poor people and represents 60% of the population, paradoxically the most powerful political weight. Their relation with the street is instinctive and is that if a primary need due to fact that their work, their house and all the rest of their daily activities take place on or near the road. Interaction and conflict between these three users takes place also and only in the street and no other place can better summarize the complexity of the every day life in Mumbai. 続 [Rewati Prabhu, 2002; 95-101]

Waiting at the train station (photo: Author)

4_ Horizontal Density

12 Mumbai is nowadays facing the problem of high density and lack of open spaces in the urban tissue. Indeed it s a difficult challenge for the community to keep the vacant land and the open public spaces in the dense urban fabric, free from illegal dwellers. As already said, Indian everyday activities are strictly connected to the street public spaces, therefore it s necessary to maintain the right equilibrium between the different needs: new housing and public area, real estate and public realm.

In the past, Mumbai squandered two big opportunities to achieve decisive city development. Today, a generous destiny has given Mumbai a third opportunity which should not be lost.

The first lost opportunity was the city development plan of Charles Correa and his associates in the 1970 s who thought to decrease city congestion by addressing the growth of the city on the eastern side of the bay which separates Salsette Island from the mainland. Navi Mumbai ( or New Mumbai ) was carefully planned by using decongestion nodes along new infrastructures and included relocation of most of the city s government institutions and port activities. However, bureaucratic problems and lack of political will, made Navi Mumbai merely a big agglomerate of new dormitory suburbs with no attention to the public realm and amenities. Beside this first lost redevelopment opportunity, Mumbai had a second chance to redevelop most part of the slums during the 1990 s. Due to the high value of real estate, most of the land occupied by the slums was considered a gold-mine. Several sites, sold partially out to developers for the construction of high rise luxurious buildings could have provided enough money for the construction of new social housing for the slum dwellers and could have been enough to also rehabilitate most of the slums on-site. In 1991, the Slum Redevelopment Scheme ( SRD) , formulate a new strategy for clearance of some exiting slums and their redevelopment in a more high dense new urban tissue. For attract developers and builders to invest in those land, the Government changed some land development regulation, allowing a higher Floor Space Index ( FSI ) . The speed of its implementation was very slow, and in 1995, the new government, promise 800.000 free houses for 4 million slum dwellers. The Slum Rehabilitation Authority ( S RA ) has been created for support a new redevelopment scheme for those dwellers. The developers had to provide both free housing as well as 20.000 Rs. per family affected in the redevelopment scheme [A. Hagn, UDRI, 2006: 147; R, Prabhu, 2002:95-101]. But also in this case, high corruption and the complicated economic relation of the city with the slum lords resulted in the squandering of this opportunity.

Today is representative of the third big occasion for Mumbai which looks as if it is on its way to also being lost. The de-urbanized sites of the historical industrial belt in City Island are constellated by controversial heritages

13 ingredients. On one hand side, the post industrial vacant land represents a potential opportunity for the city for further development and so also many heritage industrial buildings, considered as cenotaphs of a death economy, may contain more contemporary needs. On the other side, the urban tissue inherits an enormous number of low income and social housing where still the ex-workers of the mills live. Pavement dwellers and chawls ( h ouse blocks for the mill workers ) are considered slums and are located on state government, railway and municipal land. Huge industrial buildings, geometrical pattern created by series of chawls blocks, a fine grain fabric of the informal settlements and a more regular grid of formal dwellings of high income class or thin vertical tower are the component of a fragmented and heterogeneous urban tissue.

In the map is shown the different grain of the tissue in the middle part of the City Island, where are situated the majority of the mills. In blue are represented the informal settlements which occupy a big portion of the land, some in big plots and other along main infrastructures or in vacant land

in between .

( s ee also Map pag. 43 )

(Drawings: Studio) 13

14 The city has reached a density of 27.220 inhabitants/kmÂ˛. [Censusindia 2001] More families share the same room and the schools for example handle almost 70-80 students per class . [G. Gadgil, 2002, 102-108] The high level of dispersion is anyways lined by informal rules. When new poor migrants come to the city looking for jobs or when young families from within a slum decide to live on their own, they are be able to find vacant land on which to build their new house. Friends, other families or s lumlords

will tell them where to settle. These sites

are located throughout the city, on private or public land, where it is known that no one will reclaim that property for some time to come [S.B. Patel, UDRI, 2006: 224].

The migration from the hinterland to the city is influenced by a simple concept. In the city, it is possible to find work but seldom a home, while in the villages is easy to have a house, but not a job. In Maharashtra, hundreds of farmers commit suicide every year due to their dire economic conditions, while thousands of others move to the city for work

without much regard for their living conditions.

[B. Patel, UDRI, 2006: 224]. New migrants try to live as close as possible to their work, which, in turn, influences the location of the slum itself. They are often found near high income residential areas ( domestic help ) , heavy industrial complexes or in the vicinity of construction sites. In the latter, the owner allows workers to settle on the property, usually occupying almost the 20% of it. Once the work is complete, the informal settlement remains and often provides new low cost workers to service the new complex. [Kulshreshta Naveen, lecture Kuleuven 2007].

Workers settle in the construction site. The settlements remains and slowly self upgrade. Tiles and bricks are sold in the slum itself. (photo: Author)

15 The dwellers of the slum slowly try to improve the quality of their life step by step, starting from the dwelling itself, using cheap materials. Bricks walls and tiles roofs slowly make the informal settlement more and more permanent and comfortable, avoiding anyways the big step for a decisive upgrade due to the fact that the slum dwellers do not own the land on which they live. That makes their situation more instable and subsequent investments in housing upgrading not a priority. Indeed, 70% of the families in the slums are not completely poor. Most people have a job, even if a huge percentage is employed in the illegal sector. Some work as taxi drivers, telephone mechanics and even policemen. Many women work as domestic help in high income residential areas and may earn something like 2000 Rs. per month, while carpenters may earn till 300 Rs. per day. [G. Gadgil, 2002, 102-108]. Many of these people are having money but not the land on which built their homes. This is an obstacle which is compounded by the politics of city officials and/or slum landlords. In fact, the existence of informal settlements depends on the payment of unofficial

taxes

to the slum land-

lords ( mafia) , to politicians or to corrupted policemen

Most of the time anyways, the dwellings never improve due to the tragic fact that people in the slums sometimes does not survive so long. Occasionally, this is due to poverty and bad hygienic conditions, other times is because the nature turns against them [Rewati Prabhu, 2002; 95101].

Location of Slums: in construction site, on the coast, near residential area, near heavy industry. (photo: www.wikimapia.org)

16 Every year, during the monsoon season, large part of the low land close to the river banks or marshlands are flooded, destroying the area s temporary houses. Even if those natural disasters touches most of the time only the informal dwellings due to their illegal position, is not possible to ignore the origin of this problem. The perimeter wetlands of the Salsette Island are taken over by the uninterrupted extension of the city and the water network are indiscriminately filled by solid waste and polluted. That makes the natural water flow almost impossible and the flooding area almost non existent due to the continuous massive construction and reclamation process. This explains also the tremendous ecological disaster on the 26th July 2005 when the part of the city was completely flooded with the consequent death of almost one thousand people, most of them living in slums. Indeed the Mithi River, which defines a virtual delimitation of the Island City with the rest of Salsette Island, has an important role in the distribution of the water along the city core. It starts on the mountainous Borivali Park in the north of the Salsette where numerous lakes represent the biggest water reservoirs in Mumbai. The waterway has almost disappeared, taken over by illegal construction, waste material and reclamation and therefore it s not able to evacuate the exceeding of water during the raining season, with obvious consequences .

Live and work (photo: Author)

5_ Mixed use par excellence

18 Too often, for politician, investors or any other who control the city development, the slum is only a dot on the map, a landmark, sometime small enough for decide to remove it without any consequence, sometime too big for deal with it leaving it like it is, where it is. In both the cases is not considered the real essence of the slum like an extraordinary mix of unusual people. These are the people who live in the slums; their life is a part of the story of the whole city. Their lives are the slums. But the Government procedures seem sometime to ignore the problem trying to demolish them when is possible. When that does not succeed because of the efforts of the dwellers against this decision, the slum is r ecognized redeveloped

and added to the long list of land to upgrade and selectively some are chosen for be

partially

providing some basic facilities like water and sanitation.

This happen until the land on which the slum stands reaches a high value for the real estate. Than the slums are removed without any exemption also with the help of the local slum

mafia

and the inhabitants move to

other temporary illegal settlements. That happen for example when the City decided to c lean up

the city centre from all the illegal settlements,

shifting them to what was at that time the periphery. But nowadays, due to the incredible city expansion, that land is ironically the core of Mumbai and the problem is repeating again with the difference that the number of informal dweller has enormously increased, making it an unaffordable problem. [K. Sharma, 2000: xv-xxxviii]

People in the Slum (photo: Author)

19 Even from a spatial point of view, the problem has reached unsustainable limits. The 35%

(4 )

the road space has been occupied by different kind of obstacle which create big congestion problem and also reduce the potential of the infrastructure to move vehicle and pedestrian. Those obstacles take different form and are difficult to remove because they offer several services to the city and to their inhabitants. Because of the growth of the population, it s very common to find along the roads an intermi-

Linear Slums occupy the whole sidewalk. The relation with the street is total.

nable linear slum where hundreds of people daily provide low-cost workers for the informal sector and huge markets where is possible to find any kind of goods. Consequently, remove those shelters means to shift those people somewhere else, in other slums where will be impossible for them to reach their previous work place due to the unaffordable cost of the transport. Even if that was possible for them, thousands of new users will congest more the already overload public transport ( local trains, during the peak hours, carry eight times more the load they are

The intersection between streets become an extraordinary attractor of activities (markets, tea seller, etc..) which can bee seen as a big problem for the traffic..

designed for, while the traffic speed average in the city on the road is nowadays around only 5 km/hour ) . Temples and votive images are everywhere in the city and it s very easy to find some shrine in the middle of the road or pavement becoming a serious problem for the traffic but difficult to remove because of the strong common God respectful behaviour. Frequent ceremonies of every kind ( festival, marriage, funeral, holy procession

)

take place on the streets and The Government has built flyover all over the city, creating questionable urban spaces.

Obstacle and solut ions (photos: Author)

20 became a kind of wall for the circulation of the traffic. The lack of play ground and open spaces for interaction between people, pour in the streets lots of children playing cricket, men sitting for chat, and all the leisure activity constantly present in everyday life. Overshadowing street signs and electric cable, cycle, rickshaw, bikes, any sort of available animal and oversized trees are the common element of the street landscape. Cohabitation is the power of the street, but at the same time its collapse reason.

Looking to all those problems, it seems that the city is slowly suffocating itself and reaching and irreversible critical point. But this is not happening. On the contrary the city shows a big vitality, industry is expanding, workplace are increasing and numerous new technical expertise comes out from an energetic educational system

(5 ) .

Even artistically, Mumbai reaches interesting results.

Slums expand daily, but also high rise luxury houses are constructed, with private golf club and sports club. This is an extraordinary interdependent equilibrium difficult to understand as much to solve, granted if it s considered a problem, and compose the characteristic and unique Mumbai s urban landscape. (4 ) ( 5 )

[Rewati Prabhu, 2002; 95-101]

Book seller in the street. Activity of this kind can occupy the whole sidewalk. (photos: Author)

Tea seller (photo: Author)

6_ Informality: a convenient truth

22 The city administration is most of the time unable to solve slum problems and therefore just in some of those settlements are provided basic services like water supply or electricity. For the rest of the informal settlements, the slums lord take over and claim the property of the land where

the

i nformal

slum

stands

demanding

the

rent to the dweller for built their

houses and access illegally to electricity and water system, when is possible. No sanitation services are provided and the hygienic conditions

Shoe-shining on the street.

often reach critical points [G. Gadgil, 2002, 102-108]. Those people for sure would like to live their life law-abiding and this therefore balanced by

impossible i llegal

situation is activities and

works not in line with the law. At this point the moral code collapse and the necessity for survive take over any kind of redemption. Crimes become

legal .

Fortunately Mumbai keep still an unusual cohabitation

c rimes

different

realities,

therefore

the

Workers in the central fish market.

still concern mostly economical as-

pect. Formal and informal share the same space and also the same costumers. The entire streets are full of temporary bazaar selling any kind of goods. Shoe shining, tea, books, prostitute, and also many modern electronic instruments are sold in every corner. Together with the roadside food, those illegal shops are part of a unique urban image. The competitive prices of the products, makes the informal sector a strong component of the total economy of the city. The 90% of

The child labour represent nowadays a big problem in India. Their labour can be crucial for the family s survival. Some factories owner convince parents that the child can gain skills and have better lives if they work away from home [M. Jakobson, 2007: 74]

Some work activities in Mumbai. (photos: Author)

23 the urban employment is in the informal sector. [UDRI, 2006: 11] The crisis of the textile industry shifted the investments in more modern product, changing the entire profile of the city and the organized economy began to move the production in the informal and unorganized sector, where there is no kind of law which protects the workers or gives some kind of restrictions. Slums become real mine gold for the market. For example, every square meter of Dharavi, known as the biggest slum in Asia, is used for productive activity. It s a combination of free enterprises not restricted by any law and it s possible to see child labour, small dangerous industries, adulteration. Every kind of products are produced in Dharavi in miserable conditions and nothing is hidden, because nothing will be done for legitimize the workers even if the illegality is so evident and under the direct eyes of the law. This because the production reaches 11 crore Rs. ( 1 10.000.000 Rs. ) per hectare per year of profit, too high interests for stop it

only

because of human

rights [K. Sharma, 2000: 73; UDRI, 2006: 277]. Entire slums also specialize in specific activities, becoming a sort of landmark in the local economy and also in the city. Even the housing typology is influenced by the specialization of the slum itself. Washing, recycling, leather production and so on, are the activities which characterize a specific area and not a group of people. Living in that portion of land means to be part of its economy.

A huge washing machine slum which provide essent ial service to the cit y (hotels, privates, etc.) (photo: Author)

(photo: Author)

7_ Upgrading possibilities?

25 7.1 _Barrio Project

Rio de Janeiro

Planners: Jorge Mario Jรกuregui Architects

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, favelas are mostly located in very precarious sites, restricted to urbanization, like for example on the top of the hill, where is possible to have a beautiful view of the whole Rio. The Jauregui group surveyed each favela listening to the different needs of the inhabitants. As a result, the planners were able to understand all different situations and apply strategic projects specific for each of those squatters trying to emphasize the main character that distinguish them from the rest of the city like for example their marvellous location, some relevant heritage buildings or a particular detail of the community life. All the projects show a common intervention line composed by a sort of path in the slum tissue that can work as a link between the formal settlement to the informal one. Along those paths, many satellite project take place, based on the needs that the previous investigation find out. For instance in one of these settlements has been built a big sport centre where people can improve their interests, but where take place also some important international champions match.

Photo form the book: Machado Rodolfo ( Ed. ) , The Favela-Bairro Project. Jorge Mario Jรกuregui Architects, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003.

26 That force indirectly people from formal Rio to move inside the Barrio along those upgraded path for watch the match using also some of the new public facilities or open spaces like incredible belvedere. The wall between the two different realities has been successfully broken at least in those points. In this way the families which live along those new paths or closed to the intervention sites, will indirectly feel forced to upgrade their houses improving the overall aspect of the settlement itself.

Those strategic interventions are strictly related to the spirit of the settlement offering also job opportunities and can empathize the enthusiasm of those people making them belief that a better life is possible. Soccer field, school of salsa, cultural centre, local halls for meetings, laundry, common kitchen and day care centre are now facilities available also in the Barrio of Rio de Janeiro.

Community participation during the realization of the project is an important feature of the project. It makes the people feel responsible for it and the community will keep it clean and functional. This project shows that is possible to look to the slums like a potential site rich of energy that belongs to that specific community. That is what can make this project work! It already happens in some specialized slums ( washing, recycling, and manufacture ) in Mumbai, but it is only used for the benefit of a few people. Can be interesting to take advantage of the labours skills and see how those potentialities can became real.

Photos form the book: Machado Rodolfo ( Ed. ) , The Favela-Bairro Project. Jorge Mario Jรกuregui Architects, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003.

27 7.1 _Kampung Improvement programme. Jakarta, Indonesia Client:

Jakarta City Government, Ali Sadikin, Former Governor

Planners:

KIP technical unit, Mr.Darrundono, chief; Pik Mulyadi, Vice Governor of Jakarta, former Head of Regional Planning Office; People of the Kampungs.

Date:

1969 and ongoing.

By 1969, approximately 75% of the total population of Jakarta lived in informal settlements covering the 60% of the urbanized land. Migrants from the hinterland occupied the vacant city land along the infrastructure closed as much as possible to a potential job. The government tried to solve the problem implementing a program based on the idea to provide new

site and services . It consists in relocate

the slum dweller in new apposite vacant land providing only basic low cost infrastructure and service plots as paved roadways, sanitary facilities and public water taps. The construction of the new housing was left to the financial resources of the individual households. The genius of the KIP technical unit was to adapt this approach to the exiting urban kampungs. Indeed the idea was to let the people live still closed to their work establishing the necessary common feeling to be accepted in the community and not to be relocated far away, like not desiderate members of the city. Also in this example, the project starts with a long investigation in situ, understanding from place to place the existing situation, like the housing condition, the infrastructure and distribution of basic services.

Photo: www.wikimapia.org Drawing: Afshar / Paulos, Kampung improvement programme, june 1980

28 A first idea was to design a standard intervention which can be applied in all the kampungs providing new facilities and upgrading the infrastructure uniformly among the tissue with a certain amount per hectare. During the first five years ( 1969-74 ) , new roadways, footpaths, sanitary facilities, public water taps were provided all over the sites according to some specific density standards: 75 meters of paved roads, 132 meters of paved footpaths per hectare, 1 public toilet per 11 hectares, 1 public water tap per 4 hectares. Difficulties with this approach were that it did not take into account the exiting situation. Thus, in some parts, certain facilities were duplicated while others were too far and underutilized. The geometrical distribution had as a result an unbalanced accessibility to those services.

A new design approach set minimum level of infrastructure per household rather than per hectare. Paved roads ( f rom 4 to 6 meters wide ) , able to carry emergency vehicle was constructed so that each dwelling is not more than 100 meters far from it. Within 20 meters, each dwelling could reach a paved footpath ( 1 .5 meters wide ) , or in 125 meters a public standpipe must be available. Schools, hospitals and cultural centres were planned every sort amount of people therefore also for the children was possible to reach their Drainage canal and footpath. Before and after the intervention.

school faster and safer.

The KIP program is now administrated by an independent technical unit of Jakarta s city government which has crated a list of the kamungs and classified them on the base of their needs of rehabilitation. Community participation is an important feature of the program and local committee are essentially involved for removing or setting back buildings which obstacle the construction of new internal roads and to maintain the infrastructure, once constructed.

Photo: http://archnet.org/library/files/one-file.tcl?file_id=164 28

The government has never been able to propose intervention for lowest income group because of the unaffordable costs of the material and the complicated procedures used for built new houses. On the contrary the KIP technical unit accepts the squatters rather than removing them upgrading their situation with cheap and fast solutions. For assure the implementation of the program, different organization of any scale and any nature have been mobilized while the management skill of the local people have been improved so to guarantee continu-

Human waste disposal facilities. Before intervention

ity to the process. [Aga Khan Trust for Culture].

Like in Jakarta, also in Mumbai could be emphasised the urban amenities mobilizing all possible available organization which can provide founding and possible solution for a fast and cheap urban environment development. Important is to develop management skills and administrative networks to continue the process, transforming over time the informal settlement in accepted urban communities Public toilet with 12 seat capacity and washing facilities to serve an area of 11 ha. After intervention.

Photo: http://archnet.org/library/files/one-file.tcl?file_id=164

30 7.3 _Slum Networking of Indore City. Indore, India Client:

Indore Development Authority;

Planner:

Himanshu Parrikh, civil engineer;

Date:

1989 and ongoing.

The project is fundamentally a sanitation programme which considers the slums not only like a poor tissue to upgrade, but like an opportunity to improve the whole city. All the informal settlements face a riverbank. The concept was to create an infrastructure path for sewage, water and storm drainage at the city scale following the natural courses of Indore s two small rivers in the heart of the city. Indore extends on 3,218 sq. km and has a total population of 1,400,000 ( 1995 ) , 28 percent of whom live in the slums. The needs of the different areas has been surveyed for understand the common points between those informal settlements and the formal city. The government gave to the slum dwellers a long term land leases, so to let them invest on the upgrading of their dwellings. Many of them had paid for built their own private toilets ( at an average cost of 10.000 Rs. or US$ 260 ) and washrooms

Before improvement: inadequate amenities, unhygienic conditions, unplanned layouts, poor accessibility, dilapidated housing.

instead of create common public toilets where many crimes in the past has occurred. The rivers have been cleaned, the streets paved, new street lights added, community halls built and houses upgraded. Public facilities and activities are implemented in strategic points of the city, while each house can be connected to the sewer at low cost. Those are not slums anymore. For example, Indore s Krishnapura slum area is a Physical improvements: roads and footpaths, storm drainage, sanitation and sewerage system, water supply, landscaping, solid waste management.

Photo: http://archnet.org/library/files/one-file.tcl?file_id=536

31 district characterized by numerous historical buildings, like Hindu temples on the riverbank, arcade, balustrades, arches, domes and many other traditional architectural elements which have been carefully restored and reused for new local activities, like markets. The community has been involved in the realization of the interventions achieving the common feeling of o wnership

of those sites with the purpose to let people control and keep them functional and clean [Aga

Khan Trust for Culture]. This project shows how with some small rapid interventions is possible to strength people s right to pretend basic necessity for a better human dignity, make them feel part of the community owning a

home

and also

the land on which they live. The slums have successfully integrated into the urban fabric.

Also in Mumbai could be an important point the idea of the long term leasing for the slum dwellers in some particular locations. That can give to the people the certainty to be part of the community without the fear to be reallocated somewhere else any time. Hence, self-upgrading process can take place with the help of the government in providing primary facilities like water and sewage systems.

Photo: Ram Rahman , 1998, Aga Khan Visual Archive, MIT http://archnet.org/library/images/one-image.tcl?location_id=3036&image_id=13639&start=1&limit=9

M umbai Studio spring 2007, Postgraduate Master programmes MaHS MaUSP M aster in Human Settlements , KuLeuven,

STUDIO INSTRUCTORS SHANNON Kelly ( Belgium ) AG-UKRIKUL Chotima ( Thailand) STUDENTS AGUILERA DIAZ DEL PILAR Adriana ( Colombia) BEJA DA COSTA Ana ( Portugal) CAMPOS Luciana ( Argentina ) CHEN Ying Ching ( Taiwan ) DEGAETANO Marco ( Italy ) FAVARO Sabina ( Italy ) GJOKLAJ Elisabeta ( Albania ) GOSSEYE Janina ( Belgium ) SI Min Jin ( China ) TIRANISHTI Julian ( Albania ) WEN Pei Chun ( T aiwan )

(photo:

GJOKLAJ Elisabeta )

8_ Lessons form Design Studio

33 The studio wanted to generate new relations between landscape infrastructure and urbanization investigating on multiple scales the possibility to discover potential sites for intervention where to locate and distribute social infrastructure based on the needs of the inhabitants. A particular attention has been given to the informal settlements without aiming to any kind of upgrading process, which for sure needs more serious and deep analysis and professional work. Here the studio has indirectly worked on their confines, providing social infrastructures like schools, hospital or social care centre in particular where more slums are located.

8.1 _Mumbai Metropolitan Region

Analysis:

The three nodal cities in the Eastern part of the Maharashtra State, Mumbai Pune and Nasik, form the socalled

golden triangle

along which the urbanization is experiencing an incredible growth, spreading along

the infrastructure which connect those cities. Mumbai represent the critical node of this triangle becoming an incredible magnet for investments, industries and therefore also for urbanization and new migrants. Its heterogeneous landscape composed by mountains, plains, marshlands and a dense waterways, structure the territory framing the urbanization along the national roads and railways settled in the valleys. The water network represents an important natural feature in all the scales leading to the main bay between the actual Mumbai city and Navi Mumbai, considered the geographical centre of the region. This water system can potentially be part of a new sustainable local infrastructure for new fragmented satellite urban centre instead of a massive dense urban growth which is nowadays taking over the marshland and small river ways. The Mumbai Port is the one of the most important harbour on the Indian Ocean transporting goods from the hinterlands. At the moment is occupying the entire eastern waterfront of Mumbai city. In Navi Mumbai is planned to be replaced by a huge new harbour able to contain the further port activities so to decongest the overload city centre.

(Drawings: Studio) 33

34 The urbanization is dense and growing along the transport infrastructure. The government is investing in different Special economical Zones so to decongest the development into controlled and planned sites. The SEZ program allows local investors or private land owners to create new special economic zone if they are able to gather at least 1000 hectares ( also joining different properties ) . The problem is that in Navi Mumbai, the City is proposing a massive SEZ which will have many controversial consequences. First of all the area will destroy an immense portion of marshland instead of invest on reinforce the already week natural system. But the biggest problem is that the area interested for this new SEZ is completely depriving the villagers in those areas, of their only access to the see, which means to kill their economy and repeat again the same mistake done in the past with Dharavi and all the other villages in the Salsette Island. Big manifestations and strikes are taking place now in Mumbai with some drastic repression by the policemen who also has killed many of those people.

Section A: existing situation

Section B: possible scenario without any intervention ( t he urbanization will take over the already weak marshland )

Section C: possible scenario with the studio proposal ( t he new urbanization is located in the hinterland )

Section A

Section B

Section C

20 Km

(Drawings: Studio) 34

LANDSCAPE Water, marshland, mountains

20 Km

(Drawings: Studio) 35

20 Km

INFRASTRUCTURE Landscape, railway, roads, ferry

(Drawings: Studio) 36

20 Km

URBANIZATION Landscape, railway, roads, urbanization

Special economi Zone

(Drawings: Studio) 37

38 Proposal:

The project for a future development of Mumbai works with a very clear and simple vision. The special economic zones are planned to be relocate in different areas where they can complement the existing landscape instead of destroy it and keep the access to the sea for the exiting fisherman villages. The logic consists of new settlements connected to the existing infrastructure creating important node which can contain new attractor activities avoiding the congestion of the existing city.The post-industrial sites along the railway line and new planned area along the road system in Navi Mumbai will provide new social infrastructure at a regular rhythm. It s planned to provide new public realm for the whole region ( public investments in housing, public amenities and services ) possible due to the founds generated with the release of public land into the market for the inevitable construction of gated communities, high income residential area or shopping malls.

PROPOSAL

20 Km

Special economi Zone Social Infrastructure

Landscape, infrastructure, urbanization, new ferry, new urbanization

(Drawings: Studio) 39

40 8.2 _Salsette Island

Analysis:

The island itself is a huge landscape asset

a peninsula surrounded by the Indian Ocean and the bay. The

large, mountainous Borivali National Park in the north

with a number of lakes

is a dense green structure

that is in the midst of being encroached by informal urbanization. As well, the perimeter wetlands are threatened with extinction as the city continues its expansion. The water network has already reached a crisis point as rivers and tributaries are indiscriminately filled and/or polluted with solid waste. Railway and roads compose a strong north-south connection, but still not effective enough to support the 6.5 million people who move in and out Mumbai daily. The waterways system is underused while potential ferry lines are overtaken by government proposals to build new roads on the water ( western waterfront, connection with Navi Mumbai ) .

2.5

10 Km

LANDCAPE Water, marshland, mountains, urban open spaces

(Drawings: Studio) 41

2.5

10 Km

INFRASTRUCTURE Landscape, railway, roads, ferry

Government proposal (bridges)

(Drawings: Studio) 42

2.5

10 Km

URBANIZATION Landscape, railway, roads, urbanization

Slums

(Drawings: Studio) 43

44 Proposal:

The railway s underutilized vacant land composes a linear system of regularly distributed, large, underutilized plots which are re-programmed as new social infrastructure depending on the different needs. The central part of the Island has the biggest concentration of Informal settlements, therefore most of the interventions in that area will provide new schools, hospitals, care centre, sport centre and other facilities using like example the previous international precedents. Social infrastructure are always doubled with public open space which will balance the lack of recreational areas decongesting the overcrowd streets. New spaces for temporary markets will be provided so to reinforce the weak economical possibilities of the street sellers. Community s participation during the realization of those public platforms and the institution of eventual local committee composed by local people of that neighbourhood will avoid new informal settlement to occupy that land. The natural features are strengthened by creating new green areas ( floodable wet-land ) and by connecting the existing ones ( new water infrastructure ) . The ferry lines provide new sustainable north-south connections.

2.5

PROPOSAL

10 Km

New greenery Slum

Public open Spaces Social infrastructure

Landscape, infrastructure, urbanization, new ferry

(Drawings: Studio) 45

46 8.3 _Island City

Analysis:

The Island City s topography can be traced back to its origins as seven islands

which were progressively

altered through processes of land reclamation. Therefore, the ecological structure is basically non-existent. L andscape

is perceived as small, dispersed pockets of man-made parks in addition to a number of urban

beaches. The southwestern tip is marked by the famous Malabar Hill

offering spectacular views to its

wealthy inhabitants. The railway infrastructure is oversized for the present use of the rail service, as a result of the deindustrialization process. The north-south connection overshadows a weak east-west road link, mostly composed by an articulated eclectic overlap of different urban tissues.

Most of the post-industrialization sites are concentrated in the core of the city and are constituted by vacant land along the rail lands, the mill lands ( p rivate, NTC, including the related residential blocks for the workers c hawls

) and the eastern docklands.

Existing situation

Possible scenario without any intervention

Possible scenario with the studio proposal water slum green area social infrastructure private development railway

500 m

1Km

2 Km

(Drawings: Studio) 46

5 Km

LANDCAPE Water, marshland, mountains, urban open spaces, topography (7 islands)

(Drawings: Studio) 47

INFRASTRUCTURE Railway, roads

5 Km

Railway stations

(Drawings: Studio) 48

DE-URBANIZATION Railway land, dock land, mill land

5 Km

Private mills NTC mills

Slums

(Drawings: Studio) 49

50 Proposal:

Along the railyards, a system of social infrastructure doubles with an ecological corridor

a system of inter-

connected linear parks, ponds for water purification and sites for solid waste recycling. The large underutilized, post-industrial sites are either released into the private market or developed by the State as public housing, public facilities and public amenities. A system of open space connects various sites to the public transport system and claims an enlargened public realm for Mumbai.

PROPOSAL

5 Km

New greenery Slum

Landscape, infrastructure, new ferry

Public open Spaces Social infrastructure

Land for the private market

(Drawings: Studio)

Tissue analysis. Dimension: 400x400 meters Location: intersection between Dharavi ( so-called biggest slum in South Asia ) western railway Mithi River

Photo: www.wikimapia.org 52

100

200 m

100

200 m

Figure ground

Reverse Figure ground

The informal tissue is dense and compact. High contrast with the formal tissue.

Open space are rare and fragmented in the Slum. The Mithi river is an open area which can be filled with new informal housing.

100

200 m

100

200 m

Circulation

Building Functions

The railway and the main road are barrier in the city. Dharavi is framed by big infrastructures: the railway ( western and central lines ) and the main road.

The formal city around the slum has predominantly a residential character. An hospital and a mosque are the only exception.

Main road Local streets Railway

Slum Residential Mosque

Drawings: Author 53

100

200 m

100

200 m

Green Area

Satellite Image.

The Mithi river is an important natural element in the city tissue and it s also a possible site where new informal settlement can appear. In the Slum, the green area is fragmented and rare.

It s possible to distinguish two different kind of informal tissue: - on the right of the railway, the i ndustrial area of Dharavi, has a particular pattern. Large access for take out goods, big open spaces for special kind of work, particular building typologies. - on the left of the railway, the grain is small and dense. It can be the residential area, where the high density is the only driving factor.

Photo: www.wikimapia.org Drawing: Author

Figure Ground

Riverse Figure Ground

Circulation

Building functions

Green area

Satellite image

100

200 m

Photo: www.wikimapia.org Drawing: Author

(photo: Author)

9_ Conclusions

57 The formal supply of housing in Mumbai is dominated by the private sector development which contributed almost 66% of the annual housing in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region between 1984 and 1991. ( 5 ) The need of housing has exponentially increased in the last years according to the fast growth of Mumbai population with a consequently demand of 85.000 units annually in the period between 1991 and 2001. But the annual supply of housing by the private and public sector has reached only the amount of 65.000 units.

(5 )

What happen to the other people?

The informal sector is able to fill the existing gap between the demand and the potential supply of housing and also to provide an alternative to the unaffordable rents of the apartments in Mumbai. The poor communities have always been excluded from any kind of development and are forced to satisfy their needs through

illegal

activities in the informal sector.

Rehabilitation Schemes have tried to provide new house blocks to the slum dwellers so to increase the housing supply in Mumbai, but some popular trends shows that many of the family interested in this rehabilitation program have sold out, or rent their apartments and return into the slums. The new apartment s blocks have an average size of 21 sq.m per unit, which is comparable to the dimensions of the dwellings in the Slums.

(5 )

The new face of real estate (photos: Author)

Those are

vertical slums , which can t give a decent answer to the housing demand. People decided to

go back to the Slums because at least it s possible to have social life and an informal occupation. The informal work has not been taken in consideration during the rehabilitation process and consequently neither the typologies of the new dwellings can adapt to the people profession like for example leather worker, glass maker and so on. Many of those works require particular room proportions which can easily be found in the slums due to its strong relation with the street. The informal sector has been always an efficient tool which provides fast and affordable solution to the poor communities. For them, open space intended as work space and functions translated in house typologies, are more important than the city aesthetics. Another important fact is that the informal sector not only provide all kind of low cost workers, but also create an incredible recycling machine which collect from the streets an incredible amount of garbage like paper, glass, plastic and organic material. It s a very efficient service for the city, but at the same time most of the free spaces between the informal dwellings are filled of solid waste not useful anymore for recycling, which is never collected because no taxes are paid for provide this facility. A rational thinking may see the informal sector like a low cost

(5 )

service provider

for the city, while for poor

Solid waste on the coast (photos: Author)

59 people it s an opportunity to find a work. Hence, a wrong rehabilitation process may find many obstacle and resistance coming from both sides, the f ormal city

and the slums.

(5 )

The reciprocal need between the formal and the informal urbanization, under this perspective, can bee seen as a solution rather than a problem.

Is this formal/informal equilibrium really so intrinsic in people behaviour that it will ever be part of Mumbai reality?

The intention here is not to give an answer to this question; neither the studio project is

the solution

for

the numerous social problems that Mumbai is facing nowadays, but for sure can be considered as a provocative suggestion to the local institutions, for a possible development of Mumbai which can take in consideration the interests of all the social classes. New areas will be released into the market and on the other hand investments in social infrastructure and in public realm will be the first important step for a sustainable and balanced re-urbanization process.

Formalize

is maybe not a solution, neither it s is a dream .

Give people an opportunity to improve their life is an unquestionable human right.

( 5 ) (6 ) (7 ) (8 )

[P. Joshi, UDRI, 2006:154-163].

60 Drawings:

All the drawings signed with M umbai Studio

Studio

are taken from:

spring 2007, Postgraduate Master programmes MaHS MaUSP

M aster in Human Settlements , KuLeuven, STUDIO INSTRUCTORS SHANNON Kelly ( Belgium ) AG-UKRIKUL Chotima ( Thailand)

STUDENTS AGUILERA DIAZ DEL PILAR Adriana ( Colombia) BEJA DA COSTA Ana ( Portugal) CAMPOS Luciana ( Argentina ) CHEN Ying Ching ( Taiwan ) DEGAETANO Marco ( Italy ) FAVARO Sabina ( Italy ) GJOKLAJ Elisabeta ( Albania ) GOSSEYE Janina ( Belgium ) SI Min Jin ( China ) TIRANISHTI Julian ( Albania ) WEN Pei Chun ( T aiwan )

Drawings without reference are realized by the author.

Books and articles:

Davis Mike ( scholar ) :Planet of Slums London, New York 2006 ISBN 1-84467-022-8 Di Pauline Rohatgi, Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives, Architecture, Marg Publications, 1997, ISBN 8185026378 Dossal See Mariam, Imperial Designs and Indian Realities. The Planning of Bombay City 1845 1875, ( D elhi: Oxford University Press ) , 1991 Jakobson Mark, Dharavi, Mumbai s shadow city, National Geographic May 2007, vol.211 no.5, pages 68-93. Machado Rodolfo ( Ed. ) , The Favela-Bairro Project. Jorge Mario Jรกuregui Architects, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2003. Navarra Enrico, Seguin Patrik, The permanent emergency, Marseille, France, 2002, article 1 written by Rewati Prabhu, The pavements of Bombay; pag. 95-101 article 2 written by Gandaghar Gadgil, Vitality and degeneration; pag. 102-108

10_ Bibliography

61 Petruccioli Attilio, Modelli culturali nell i mpianto e nelle trasformazioni di Old Delhi, Storia della CittĂ , nÂ° 31-32, pp. 123-124, Electa, 1986 Sharma K., rediscovering Dharavi, Penguin Books, New Delhi, India, 2000 UDRI, R.Mehrotra, P. Joshi, P. Shetty, B Menezes, Mumbai reader, UDRI, Mumbai, 2006

Websites:

Demographia World Urban Areas: 2005 Population & 2015 Projection, http://www.demographia.com/dbworldua2015.pdf Government of Maharashtra, Department of Relief and rehabilitation, http://mdmu.maharashtra.gov.in/ pages/Mumbai/mumbaiplanShow.php KIP Unit Jakarta

Kampung Improvement Program , Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 1980 http://

archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.tcl?site_ i d=63 Parikh Himanshu, Slum Network of Indore city, Aga Khan Award for Architecture, http://archnet.org/ library/sites/one-site.tcl?site _id=1645 Risbud Neelima, The case of Mumbai, India, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu- projects/Global _R eport/cities/ mumbai.htm Taino Danilo, Baraccopoli, raddoppia la popolazione. Corriere della Sera, 15 Sept 2004 http:// it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraccopoli UN-Habitat ( 2 003 ) Global Report on Human Settlements 2003, The Challenge of Slums, Earthscan, London; Part IV: 'Summary of City Case Studies' Xavier Helia Nacif, Fernanda Megalhaes, The case of Rio de Janeiro, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/ Global _Report/pdfs/Rio.pdf http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai World Gazetteer

Pictures:

All pictures without reference are taken by the author.